An Innovative Thermal Management Approach Enhanced by Thermoelectric Stations and Turbulators for Lithium-Ion Batteries

The design of an effective battery thermal management system is critical to ensure the safe, efficient, and long-lasting operation of lithium-ion batteries. Excessive heat generation and temperature non-uniformity among cells in high energy density battery systems lead to performance degradation, accelerated aging, and an increased risk of thermal runaway. Although liquid-cooled systems and thermoelectric module-assisted solutions have been extensively investigated separately in the literature, studies that holistically evaluate multiple thermoelectric stations combined with an innovative flow channel design and turbulator integration remain limited. This gap constitutes a significant research need, particularly in terms of improving temperature uniformity and reducing maximum cell temperature. In this study, to address this research gap, a novel liquid-cooled battery thermal management system integrating thermoelectric coolers and turbulators within the flow channel is proposed. The thermal performance of the proposed system was systematically analyzed using computational fluid dynamics under three different configurations (conventional system, thermoelectric-assisted system, and turbulator-integrated thermoelectric-assisted system) and four different mass flow rates (0.0008, 0.0013, 0.0018, and 0.0023 kg/s). The results indicate that, at a mass flow rate of 0.0023 kg/s, the integration of thermoelectric coolers and turbulators reduces the maximum battery temperature by 8.95 K and the maximum temperature difference by 6.83 K. At the highest mass flow rate, the proposed system achieves a maximum battery temperature of 306 K and a maximum temperature difference of 4.5 K, ensuring both effective cooling performance and high temperature uniformity. Overall, the results in terms of cooling performance and temperature uniformity demonstrate that the combination of thermoelectric modules and turbulators offers significant potential for advanced battery thermal management system applications and offers an effective solution for high-energy-density systems.